Chinese President Hu Jintao,
who is also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China (CPC), addresses the Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC
Central Committee in Beijing on Oct. 11, 2006. The Sixth Plenum of the 16th
CPC Central Committee was held in Beijing on Oct. 8-11. (Xinhua
Photo)Photo Gallery
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BEIJING,
Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
(CPC) concluded its 6th plenary session here Wednesday and issued a communique
highlighting the issue of social harmony.

It also set the date and venue for the Party's 17th
national congress in the second half of 2007 in Beijing.

The 4-day plenum, in which General Secretary Hu
Jintao made a keynote speech, advocated putting the construction of a socialist
harmonious society at a "more prominent position" on its work agenda while
adhering to economic development as its central task, the communique said.

The plenary meeting, attended by 195 CPC Central
Committee members and 152 alternate members, is the first of its kind that the
Party has ever held focusing on social development matters other than political
and economic affairs.

"There are quite many contradictions and issues that
impair social harmony" even when China is "a harmonious society in general," the
document admitted.

According to the communique, the Party will in the
next 15 years commit itself to improving democratic legal system and human
rights protection, narrowing wealth gap, increasing employment, improving public
service of the government, promoting people's moral standards, securing public
order and protecting the environment.

To achieve these goals, the plenum stressed that more
efforts shall be made to coordinate economic and social development, promote
social equity and justice, form a set of common aspirations, ideals and moral
codes for the whole society, strengthen social affairs management and services,
and create harmonious social relations for the unity of all the Chinese people.

While calling for efforts to promote economic growth,
the Party also stressed the importance of erecting a new set of common values in
the market economy-based society in the making.

"(Constructing) a socialist core value system will be
essential to cultural harmony in the country," the communique said. It called on
the whole Party to work for cultural harmony and consolidate the ideological and
ethical foundations for social harmony by "erecting the socialist core value
system and the socialist concept of honors and disgraces."

The plenum also stressed that the role of the CPC
itself is crucial for the construction of a harmonious society. Local Party
committees around the country should "sharpen political sensitivity,
strengthening investigation and research into major social issues" for the
effectiveness of their policies, and "properly handle prominent contradictions
and issues that affect social harmony in their localities," it said.

The communique urged Party members to strengthen
ideological and moral cultivation. It also called for efforts to improve the
anti-corruption mechanism and enhance supervision over leading officials and
organizations.

"Sound ethos within the Party should be cultivated to
bring along healthy ethos among the general public and government officials, so
as to create harmonious relations between the Party and the masses," it said.